Protective enclosure for a wellhead

摘要

A protective enclosure for protecting well head equipment at a surface location is made up of an open framework of structural members which surround and protect the well head. Individual steel panels are assembled to form a series of upstanding walls which are covered by a series of roof panels and which together define the quasi-enclosed area surrounding the well head. The roof panels are covered with a steel grating which forms a covered roof for the protective enclosure. The tubing which makes up the steel panels is spaced to allow access to the enclosed area by a worker needing to access the well head. Upright legs of the steel panels are joined together by hinged brackets. The panels can also be secured to the surrounding terrain by a cemented retainer arrangement.

主权项

1. A method protecting an upstanding well head with a protective enclosure located at a well surface location above ground in order to preclude encounter between the well head and objects which might be brought into damaging contact therewith, the method comprising the steps of:
transporting a plurality of structural members from a distant location to the well surface location containing the upstanding well head; assembling an open framework of structural members to thereby define a quasi-enclosed area adapted to surround and protect the well head, the open framework of structural members being comprised of a plurality of individual steel panels, each of the steel panels being constructed of lengths of square steel tubing, the panels being assembled to form a series of upstanding walls which are covered by a series of roof panels and which together define the quasi-enclosed area surrounding the well head; covering the series of roof panels with a steel grating which forms a covered roof for the quasi-enclosed area: wherein the lengths of square steel tubing, when assembled, are spaced to selected distance apart which allows access to the quasi-enclosed area by a worker needing to access the well head; wherein the individual steel panels which make up the protective enclosure have upright legs which are joined together using hinged brackets; wherein each of the hinged brackets has an L-shaped left arm which is joined to an L-shaped right arm by a hinged region, the left and right arms of the hinged brackets being pivotable at the hinge region so as to be positionable between an open and closed position, and wherein a selected one of the left and right arms of the hinged brackets are provided with a threaded boss which receives a threaded shaft of a bolt in a threaded bore thereof, the other respective arm being provided with an aperture for receiving an outer extend of the threaded shaft of the bolt when the arms are moved to the closed position; wherein the aperture is slightly larger in diameter than the diameter of the threaded shaft of the bolt to ease receipt of the threaded shaft within the aperture during assembly; wherein when the left and right arms are in the closed position, they define an enclosed space which is approximately sized to receive two of the upright legs of two of the steel panels making up the assembly; wherein the steps of the method include the steps of affixing at least selected ones of the upright legs of the enclosure to surrounding earth by a cemented retaining arrangement; wherein the steps of using the cemented retaining arrangement include digging a hole in a surface location and burying a planar retaining plate in the hole, the retaining plate having one or more depending retaining legs; wherein the generally planar retainer plate is buried below the surrounding earth surface and has a top surface arranged generally parallel to the surrounding surface of the earth once cemented in place; and wherein the depending retaining legs of the retaining plate are joined to the selected leg of the enclosure by an upstanding ring member on the plate and a similar upstanding ring member on the enclosure leg, the ring member being joined by a connector element.